Kentucky Fried Garden is my journal of vegetable gardening in humid western Kentucky USDA zone 7a. Knowing where my food comes from and whether it comes from non-genetically modified seed is important to me. I try to use open pollinated varieties in an effort to continue maintaining the diversity of food plants available to humans. Trying to extend the harvest by experimenting with hardier varieties and overwintering plants will be one of my projects.

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August 29, 2016

Peppers are still coming in and with all the rain the later peppers seem to have much thicker walls which is nice. The sweet peppers were added to a beef stir fry with store bought peppers mixed in, the sauce is soy sauce, Lea Perrins Worcestershire, sugar, and hot pepper flakes.

Hot peppers haven't done as well this year, that end of the pepper bed seems to have very distorted tiny wispy leaves.

Eggplants are doing ok, the long thin one is a Mazu eggplant which was very tender.

The last of the Korean melons. The white flesh is really good chilled, when well ripe it is tender and juicy.

There's some strange insects infesting the brassicas. They look like squash bugs but they're yellow with black spots. Brussels sprouts are starting to form on the plants, but the leaves are dying off. The bugs are probably spreading some kind of virus.

I picked four more grocery bags full of basil, three were taken to work and quickly nabbed. And of course I made and froze more pesto. There's still the Asian basil "Siam Queen" to deal with, whole leaves will probably get frozen in freezer bags so pieces can be broken off easily. I find normal basil to be very herbaceous and fresh tasting, whereas Asian basil has a cinnamon sweetness to it.

I'd been making lots of dishes with roasted tomatoes, chickpeas or potatoes, Indian curries and coconut milk. And then I tried a pasta dish with pesto, snap beans and potatoes from a Nigella recipe. My partner is appreciative of the efforts but I think it's too many meals with too many bright bold flavors. So lately it's been lasagna with salads, and today I cooked cube steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, and fried corn. It's funny how simple things can be so satisfying.

Please join us at Harvest Monday, a celebration of vegetables from the garden.

August 21, 2016

Fall is rushing towards us even as summer plants perk up with cooler weather and wet cloudy days. This has turned out to be the wettest August on record for us. Tomatoes and eggplant are still trickling in, although tomatoes are very much at their end.

The Ginkaku Korean melons have been a sweet surprise for us. Seeded May 1st and planted out in the garden May 30th, it feels like the plants have been giving us innumerable melons for months. At this point we're freezing cut up melons for smoothies.

Bell peppers and Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers are still coming in, and the cherry tomatoes are a surprise harvest. The thieving squirrels that used to frolic through our neighbor's oak trees and rampage through my garden haven't been around lately, nor the multitude of chirpy little birds. Something has them spooked and I'm guessing the hawk that's been flying around, or maybe the owl that can be heard at twilight.

Tomato season is definitely at an end. The plants will get pulled up next weekend, which is marked for the big garden clean up. Even so, eggplants and peppers are truly coming into their own with these wet 80 degree days with many starting to flush with fruit.

The last of the tomatoes have been made into roasted tomato sauce and frozen. Our plans for salsa this year just didn't work out, the early heat and the late pepper start really did me in. I'll have to be more disciplined and start those persnickety chile peppers in February rather than March.

I picked three big grocery bags full of basil. One bag equaled a huge colander full of leaves once destemmed. Three quarts of thick blender-ized basily goodness now rest in the freezer, topped off and protected by a layer of olive oil. Now there's only one variety of basil left to make into pesto. (Yes, I made separate pesto batches from each variety.)

The luffa vines have taken over all the bean and cucumber trellises. The long trailing vines that clamber over fences with leaves the size of dinner plates are finally blooming. I'm hoping for mountains of tender young loofah. The fry pan awaits.

Once the tomato and bush bean beds get cleared, and some of the pole bean trellises that aren't swallowed up by luffa. The peas can get planted and hopefully lettuce, spinach, fennel, turnips, beets, winter radishes and all the greens will find a place.

Please join us at Harvest Monday where rowdy and raucous gardeners share their love of vegetables and cooking said vegetables.

August 8, 2016

We are still getting tomatoes and Jimmy Nardello peppers. The tomato with the green/yellow stripes on the bottom is a chocolate stripes tomato.

Happily, the melons keep ripening. Although, half the plants have died at this point by animal intervention.

The yellow tomatoes are Kelloggs Breakfast which as a later variety generally gets processed rather than eaten individually.

The squashes seem to have given up at this point, so the whole row will get pulled soon. But surprisingly the cucumbers are still producing. It seems like the yellow and black striped cucumber beetles have moved on.

A little bell pepper also got picked on Saturday, along with these just ripening tomatoes. I'm still picking the tomatoes early, but the squirrels seem busy with their manic digging these days. And of all craziness, the squirrels chewed a huge huge hole at the tope of our gas can for the lawn mower. It was shocking. Must have just happened this past week. We need to get one of those fake owls to scare them off but I keep forgetting to pick one up.

I spent Saturday and Sunday roasting ripe tomatoes layered on parchment with sweet peppers, onions, garlic, and basil that were drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with a touch of sea salt. After each tray spent four hours at 250 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven they got put through the blender. And we ended up with 4 gallons of blended sauce with minimal work over 2 days which all got frozen. It was a nice way to use up all the tomatoes in the fridge and on the countertop, now there's just the tomatoes that were picked Saturday.

There's a recipe for double chocolate zucchini bread I'm going to try on Tuesday along with my mother-in-laws recipe for zucchini bread. They both should freeze well.

August 1, 2016

We are very excited by the first of the broccoli, hopefully they will have a long season since there's 5 varieties planted in the garden. Again, it's Waltham that is first to produce. There's also Jimmy Nardello peppers and Santa Fe Grande peppers. And the first paste tomato is San Marzano Redorta. I'm still picking tomatoes a bit under ripe trying to keep them from the critters.

With the influx of tomatoes I plan on making sauce and canning this weekend and maybe roast some for the freezer.

Zucchini, yellow summer squash, and snap beans keep trickling in. We have 4 varieties of yellow summer squash planted including a couple hybrids, but they haven't done much since the vine borers attacked. The beans are used in stir fries and dishes for our little one.

And the first kohlrabi. I was wrong, the really ripe Ginkaku melon is actually awesome when well chilled, and they keep forever in the fridge. So good. The eggplants are starting to ripen at a steadier pace. I plan on freezing some marinated grilled eggplant for the winter.

It's been raining regularly, about 10 inches for the month of July as I've been told. It's a great time of year with lots of cooking and harvesting from the garden. The wax melon plants are running wild and I have high hopes for their future. Even as my dreams for winter squash go out with a whimper as August moves in.

August is when I'll start clearing the zucchini and summer squash beds, and clearing off the bush beans and pole bean trellises to make room for fall plantings like snap peas and snow peas. Lettuce, fennel, beets, spinach, and a plethora of greens will need to be started by the end of August so they'll be bigger when they get planted out in September. There's lots to do and lots to look forward to.

Please join us at Harvest Monday, where gardeners far and wide gather to share their vegetable adventures.